Lois is recovering currently.  All is looking good but the doctors will continue to observe her and take appropriate action over the weekend.

grant and lois

Thank you for your continual prayer.

grant and lois

Things are progressing nicely, though slow.  For those med heads out there, the current numbers are 50% effaced, 3 cm dilated and the baby is in position zero.  I won’t bore you with explanations, rather say we are just about half way there.  As the baby is smaller, all the professionals feel that the birth will happen without full dilation.

As in everything we have experienced, once again God’s timing is perfect.  One example of this, our primary OB doctor is presiding over the high risk labor and delivery department currently.  To put this into perspective, in addition to her normal clinic hours, she does one 36 hour shift in labor and delivery each month.  When we arrived the hospital, she had just begun this month’s shift and has been able to personally oversee everything.  It is difficult to properly explain how important this has been, but with the unique nature of our situation, no question, this has been an amazing gift from God.

We greatly appreciate your thoughts and prayers during this time.  I will make an effort to keep the updates coming, especially when this may take a while.  Continue to cry out to the Lord with us for His glory to be clear!

grant and lois

And so it begins, literally, as we are currently preparing to deliver our son.  Please pray that God be glorified throughout the process and that His will be done.  Of course we continue to cry out with our desire that He would grant safety and health to mom and baby.

More updates to come.

grant and lois

Last week? Or maybe it was the week before now, (my weeks are running together) I went to the hospital one more time for bleeding.  I don’t like to consider myself alarmist and I feel I’ve been doing a pretty good job of being calm and collected about everything that’s taking place within. But, after Grant looked at me and said, “Are you ok, you look pretty rough …” and I did some more napping, we decided to go get checked out again.  Monitors, blood draws and baby kicks and I was out of the hospital once again and sent home to bleed some more.

I’ve been told this is alarming and I’m actually losing “too much” – enough to come to the hospital quite frequently if I want.  But, every time I go in, I check out fine, all my blood counts look great and they send me home.  I think MY GOD IS AMAZING!

So, this has continued to be thematic and since it’s not combined with other symptoms we’ve been taking things as they come, moving forward, trusting God to guide us in what is best.

SO… two days ago I’m lying on my back, once again, seeing what I can see in the haze that is my ultra sound.  From my perspective my placenta looks more normal than ever, the baby is growing, spine, legs, arms, and … an eye!  Wow!

Updates from the doctors:  Your baby is 556 grams, you have 3 cm of fluid, “not much has changed,” the placenta may look more normal because it is thinning out.  BAM!

“WHAT?”  Sometimes, I just wish they could rejoice with me over something.  For me this whole day was huge.  We’ve been waiting for this baby to grow to 500 grams.  556 grams was actually exceeding everyone’s expectations.  Most of the doctors didn’t even think he would make that.

That brings us to today.  For those of you who don’t want to look it up 556 grams is just a little over 1 pound.  Still pretty small and not ideal, but what doctors consider viable for life outside the womb.  Due to where we are in the pregnancy as well as our history of bleeds doctors recommend hospital bed rest from here on out.  We’re now in a new season of decisions and pressures that are newly challenging for us and we’d appreciate your prayer as we navigate these and communicate with our medical team.  All our love!

Everyday I feel more joy not because we’ve made it another day, but because God is confirming His word, revealing truth, and showing us tangibly his goodness.  He is doing a work that only He could do and we walk in faith that is strengthened daily.

We received final word yesterday on the analysis of all the genetic testing done as a result of our biopsy.   Everything is normal.  Nothing is wrong chromosomally or otherwise … as far as they can tell.  Of course, there’s always the caution they can’t see everything so something could be wrong, but I’m rejoicing in God’s perfect purpose for this baby and sense a deep peace about what’s happening.

Our appt. today was a continued God happening.  We had anticipated needing to go in playing defense, “enforcing our game plan,” so to speak.  Our doctor has been continually wary, wanting to keep a very close watch on me, and some of her first comments today were, “I don’t need to see you as much anymore.”  (jaws drop)  So, we’ll be going in less frequently (probably every other week at first) barring any unforeseen circumstances.

Little one is sounding great …  his heart beat is good.  He had the hiccups today (he must be mine) and I was able to feel him respond as she moved the doppler on my stomach.  It was a very new experience for me.  No ultra sound was involved, but I felt more involved and connected with our son.  Since we have not had an ultra sound recently we are not aware of the amount of fluid present, but movement is very good.  Thank you for praying!  Continue to lift these next 14 weeks up in prayer.  We have a long way to go, and everything is possible with GOD!

We also met with a neonatologist to get her perspective (more from the side of the baby) on things that are happening as we move forward.  There are many potential risks … let’s be honest, there always are.  However there are many factors that we can’t predict, can’t know, and can’t see.  It was encouraging to hear they didn’t know much right now because they can’t see, feel, and touch inside.  It’s as if they are trying to give us their best based on their views through the lens of a giant curtain.

God is not limited, however to this curtained view and our prayer is that we will continue to trust His vision and enjoy Him as He shares with us more of His heart in the process.

After a night of monitoring, extensive checking of this and that and blood work that returned normal we were given the all clear.  We’re still not “in the clear” so to speak.  Bleeding has not stopped and is still concerning, but without other signs to point to, there is no reason to keep me in the hospital at the moment (aka. there is “no cause for concern”).  I will stay close to the hospital for the moment and keep the updates coming … God is good!

I find myself wondering if this saga of hospital stays and wonder and struggle is about to end and then I realize that whether it’s hospital related or not there will be struggle in life.  I’m promised LIFE IN CHRIST and with that also comes the fellowship of sharing in His suffering, becoming like Him in His death (phi 3:10).   It may be hard, but I know from what I’ve experienced thus far that this fellowship is sweet!  Maybe I am, in fact, living a better story than even I could imagine.

First comments were, “everything looks normal.”  Sigh.  Good news! I like normal.  There is no presence of Down syndrome, Trisome 18 also known as Edwards syndrome, or Trisome 13 also called Patau syndrome.   Chromosomally they were also able to confirm that it is a boy.  Ten days or so till the full results are in, but this was encouraging.

Thanks again for your prayers!  You are a crucial part of this process!

Smiling, once again I am walking out of my dr.’s office with joy.  God is sustaining us.  Our dr. called this last weekend to let us know they were able to schedule a placental biopsy for Monday, the 14^th.  (That was today).  We were launched into two days of prayer and talking pros and cons.  Would it make a difference for us to have more information?  What would we do with that information and if we miscarried because of this biopsy would we be destroyed?

Wrestling with the tough questions has become commonplace, but I’m coming to understand what if’s are “for the birds.”  One step at a time we deal wisely with what we absolutely know and we let God handle everything.  If there’s something we don’t know we don’t make decisions based on what might happen and we always cry out to Jesus for His wisdom.

After it was all on the table we decided to go ahead with the biopsy.  Driving from our home at 6:15 am was a bit brutal, but the 8:15 am appt. went well.  It was a quick procedure. Grant held my hand as the numbing needle proved quite painful, but it was over in a matter of minutes.  My prayer was for protection.  As the needle pierced my belly my heart cried, “God, protect this baby!”  I know he heard me.

We met with our OB shortly after.  We were able to give her the good news from last week that I have no more pain in my abdomen.  Everything else looks good and I was even able to escape a blood draw.   For the first time I was also able to let her know I had felt fetal movement.  Every week someone asks, “have you felt the baby move yet?” Every week I say, “no,” but as we waited in the lobby this morning I felt a distinct movement I can’t point to anything else.  I felt our little one move.

This is the 24^th week, but we have a long way to go … thank you for praying, for reading, for being involved in our lives!